Yes Chef! Meet rising star Adrian Martin

No, I don’t, no,” laughs Adrian Martin when we ask him – straight-faced – if he ever sleeps.

Because not only is the 25-year-old Cavan chef kept busy creating recipes and videos for his website and social media channels and driving to demos across the country, he has just finished his first cookbook, is shooting a new online series for RTÉ, will shortly launch his own “Fakeaway” meal range, is planning a restaurant franchise, and… well, you get the picture.

But then, this is the same person who describes how he “finally” made the leap from the family business at 13, pestered Neven Maguire for a job at 14, made his TV debut at 23 and keeps proving what you can achieve when you believe.

“There’s nothing that you can’t do really and I think I’ve probably proven it just by putting my mind down to it, setting out goals for myself,” he says. “You can do whatever you want. You can.”

Cavan & Proud

Sometimes described as “the new Donal Skehan” (“Who?” he jokes, before revealing they are good pals), Adrian is, frankly, just himself.

The second of four children, his mother Anne worked as a music teacher and school secretary, while his father ran a hardware shop and supermarket in Swanlinbar and also was an Aga dealer before setting up Martin Event Management, coordinating events for Ireland’s top chefs. With that background, it’s no surprise that at 13 Adrian got his first job in a local supermarket where he cleaned toilets and washed cars for two months before requesting a promotion to the deli counter.

“They wouldn’t let me,” he says, “so I quit and walked out!”

And walked to the door of MacNean House in Blacklion to ask Neven Maguire for a job.

“He gave me an opportunity, he really did,” says Adrian, who started off picking the stems of baby spinach leaves and worked his way through every department over the next six years.

That break was crucial – especially as Adrian reveals how he struggled in school.

“I’ll be very honest with you. I got 170 points in my Leaving Cert. I failed a lot of the subjects. I actually did a failed Leaving Cert,” he says.

“That was a big, big thing to me. Failing the Leaving Cert was literally like a big downfall for me. It’s a big thing because everybody around me, all my friends, were getting great results in their Leaving Cert and getting into great colleges. I was only able to go part-time because I didn’t get the points to go to college.”

However, with support from his lecturers – initially in Enniskillen, then in Killybegs – Adrian earned his culinary arts degree while working at MacNean House, before deciding his next move.

“I had the chance to go to Australia with all my friends and to work in Melbourne. I actually had tickets booked,” he says, “but I took a chance and I stayed in Ireland.”

Taking A Chance

Keen to follow in the footsteps of food heroes like Neven, Adrian knew he had to get his name out there, so approached a few craft butchers and artisan food stores to ask if he could work behind their counters for a few days to interact with customers and share recipes and tips.

“128 shops later”, he explains how this experience built his confidence in dealing with the public.

“I was very, very shy and I had to learn quick how to become an outgoing, outspoken person – and it didn’t take me long,” he quips.

“It was one of those skills that I had but that I’d never tapped into. I’m really delighted that I did.”

Little wonder then that when Adrian got the call to cook on TV3 on his 23rd birthday, he was ready and remains a regular on The Six O’Clock Show. He also worked with the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland, developed his website and created the All-Ireland Home Cook competition with his father in conjunction with the Irish Shows Association.

However, his big break came last year when his video for a healthy “fakeaway” version of a spice bag went viral.

“It reached 207,000 people and it opened everything for me,” he says, explaining how RTÉ commissioned an online series of fakeaway recipe videos before shooting a professional pilot show, Chef Adrian Eats Ireland, for RTÉ Player. This month, he will record a full online series for streaming in March, which he hopes will encourage younger viewers to start cooking.

Indeed, Adrian does demos for schools nationwide and is passionate about tackling Ireland’s obesity crisis with common sense – for example, encouraging schools to make microwaves and ovens in home economics classrooms available at lunchtime for students to heat up healthy meals from home – while encouraging young people to have fun by cooking his fakeaways.

Conquering Fear

No surprise then that his first cookbook, due out this summer, is full of fakeaway inspiration. Adrian explains how he overcame his fear to write the book after listening to a radio interview with Jamie Oliver, who shared his own struggles with the traditional education system due to dyslexia.

“I never thought I’d be able to do it,” he admits.

“There was that fear in me that I’m not going to be able to do it because of the writing process, and that just really kicked me over the edge this year when Jamie Oliver mentioned it on the radio and he said he’s dyslexic and he was in special needs classes and everything. That really pushed me to do it this year.”

His mother was a huge support in helping to put the book together and it is very clear how close he is to his family, with both his father and brother also working with him. And every extra hand is necessary this spring as Adrian launches a line of fakeaway retail products, which are being produced for him by Mcardle Meats in Dundalk, while longer-term plans are afoot for a healthy fast-food franchise.

He also works with the ICA, is an ambassador for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland and, quite apart from all that, has been going out with girlfriend Fiona for the last three years, spending weekends at her family’s dairy farm in Sligo where he is a dab hand at milking.

Remember what we said at the start about finding time to sleep?

Visit www.chefadrian.ie or follow on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. CL